Weekend Box Office Report: Easter Dips

Not quite a fruitful weekend for animation, considering the holiday and all...

Second place. The Boss Baby. Dropped 41%. Home did way better that weekend, so it looks like The Boss Baby will end up somewhere in the low-to-mid 160s, which is still pretty good. Worldwide it sits at $238 million, it is out everywhere now except in Kuwait and Poland. I guess it'll be another $300 million+ worldwide grosser for the studio. I wonder if they'll view it as a pass or a flop.

The little blue guys got hit even harder. Smurfs: The Lost Village fell 50%, an unusually big drop for an animated film on its second weekend. So much for taking advantage of that Easter timeframe, eh Sony? Domestically it's at $24 million and worldwide it's at $95 million. The last three markets are China, India, and South Korea. Could it triple its $60 million budget? Who knows, but I reckon the juice has run out and Sony might move onto other things.

All the way down in 24th place is ToonBox's Spark: A Space Tail. A movie that was completed in early 2016, screened to an audience at a film festival just about a year ago... Open Road Films sat on it, didn't ink a release date for a long, long while. Then they did, but didn't promote it. A trailer came out just a matter of weeks ago, and then it turned out that they had no use for it. It was dumped in a little over 350 theaters this weekend, not screened for critics, and the few reviews that seeped onto Rotten Tomatoes are pretty... Well... Unkind.

Makes me wonder how they'll handle Blazing Samurai and Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad, both of which are set to open next year and also don't carry any concrete release dates at the moment.

It opened with $112k. What was the point of even releasing it theatrically? Quite something, how an inoffensive, arguably DTV-grade picture like that can get a release this size while truly great works of animated art have to settle for tiny amounts of theaters. I was very curious about this picture for a long time, then the trailer showed up and while I didn't dislike what I saw, I did see that it was just another pic aimed at the roughly 6-10 set.

Sing and Moana still roll in some venues. The former: $270m DOM / $621m WW. The latter: $248m DOM / $637m WW.

GKIDS gave My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea an expectedly tiny release. $15k from 3 theaters.

No update on Your Name. yet.

Baby Beats Blue: 'Boss Baby' Tops Weekend, 'Smurfs' Opens Softly

Probably inconceivable back in October, DreamWorks' The Boss Baby may just secure the top spot on its second weekend.

Facing a pretty good-sized dip, the DreamWorks comedy is expected to take in around $25 million off of a $6 million Friday haul. Now that's a roughly 47% dip, but it would have it narrowly beating out Beauty and the Beast, which has entered the fourth weekend of its run.

That puts the picture on par with Home at the moment. That opened with $52 million and sank 48% on its second weekend, it too was a late March release. If The Boss Baby follows its trajectory, it should finish up with around $170 million domestically. Either way, it's going to be a domestic hit for DreamWorks. Now we shall see how the overseas grosses add up.

Smurfs: The Lost Village, Sony's all-animated restart of the Smurfs movie series, was no match for the baby. Opening soft with $4 million yesterday, projections have it at $13-14 million. A little lower than what The Smurfs 2 took in on opening weekend back in summer 2013. Given slightly better critical reception than its hybrid predecessors, Sony probably isn't worrying - the film is one of their cheapest to date. I'm hearing nothing but mixed things, but the consensus is basically "It's better than the hybrid movies." Some are saying it's pleasant and fun, others are saying it's mediocre and run-of-the-mill.

The film cost $60 million, and looks quite amazing on a budget that size. Shows that not every computer animated movie has to be this gargantuan $100-million production. Sony Animation has shown that time and time again, as has Illumination and other houses. The previous hybrids cost around $100-110 million to make, each... The second film's $347 million worldwide gross against that was what lead to this reboot.

So what went wrong? Audiences probably got tired of the schtick when Smurfs 2 was coming out, and didn't think this looked much better. I certainly had my doubts, instead of a fun adventure that respects the actually decent Peyo comics, it looked like a typical "kids" movie with forced "adult" jokes (haha, a Smurf is kicked in the groin!) and noise and such. Maybe the movie isn't just that, I don't know yet, but marketing can make something - regardless of how good or bad it may be - look crumby. With a smaller opening, it could still be pretty leggy.

Worldwide, it just has to top $150 million (2.5x the $60 million budget), which I think it will do with ease given the blue creatures' origins.

Your Name., in its limited run, debuted with $627k. Looks like it'll have a solid opening for an anime film. Hopefully it gets some traction...

UPDATE (4/10/2017): Totals are in...

The Boss Baby tops all at $26 million, down 47% from last weekend. This is looking at a Home run, pun shamelessly intended.

Smurfs: The Lost Village might've landed at #3, but took in $13 million - as expected - over the weekend.

Your Name. took in a solid $1.6 million. A wee bit below the $1.8 million Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' took in back in 2015, but I'll take what I can get. It isn't playing near me, unfortunately.

Sing still sings worldwide, now at $620 million. Moana is a few steps ahead at $634 million.

Remember the Zoo: 'Madagascar 4' Still a Go?

Since The Boss Baby is now out, it makes sense that director Tom McGrath has been doing some talking.

McGrath, alongside Eric Darnell, launched DreamWorks' Madagascar franchise nearly 12 years ago. Released just as the CG fad (short for: a time when ANY computer animated movie would make boffo bucks at the box office) was beginning to wane, it did pretty well, it was certainly more successful than the previous couple of non-sequel DreamWorks films that didn't happen to be about an ogre. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa was released three years later, and made a lot of coin as well. The third installment, 2012's Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, blew both out of the water critically and commercially... To the tune of $742 million.

Two years later, DreamWorks followed that up with Penguins of Madagascar, which ended up being a domestic doozy and a film that was labelled a big flop. The studio crashed, 2014 as a whole brought DreamWorks down, and regrouping was in order. Prior to all that, the studio had a fourth Madagascar movie slated for the spring of 2018. After the unfortunate chain of happenings, the studio whittled their slate down... Madagascar 4 was a casualty, but it wasn't outright canned.

It was simply removed from the slate because they didn't want to release too many movies every calendar year. Yet it seems like it may not move forward, because as time has gone by, we've heard little about it. When Comcast acquired the studio last year, a new slate was slowly unraveled... It currently ends at spring 2020, and Madagascar 4 is nowhere to be seen. If it debuts in 2021, it'll have been nearly nine years since the last one!

McGrath, in an interview with Hey U Guys, briefly talked about the future of the zoo/circus gang: "There are things in the works, nothing is announced yet, but I think they’ll show their faces once more..." It was super-brief. In the interview video, he seems to get that one out of the way, as he probably can't say too much. Either that, or, it may not get the green light.

I wouldn't have minded one last movie with the gang, though the third one arguably ended their story on a strong note. Still, the new circus characters were a lot of fun and it would be cool to see them again... But, we don't know. I'd certainly take it over a fifth Shrek, for sure.

Do you think Madagascar 4 will happen?

Shrek Status: Fifth Film's Script Complete, May "Reinvent" Series

File this under the no-joke category as well, for I am a day late on this one.

Shrek, Shrek, Shrek...

Some 15 years ago, it seemed like the green ogre was the face of mainstream animation. All the newcomers wanted to follow its model, while oddly ignoring the Pixar model. Forget that it actually had a solid story, competitors thought its edgy sense of humor and potty jokes were the key to a hugely successful animated film. Naturally, that went belly up for them, and for originator DreamWorks as well.

Though Shrek kept going strong, probably because... You know... The likability of the characters. For as much ribbing as I give Shrek, I will admit that I found its story and characters to be pretty strong, and it's often a very funny and quotable movie. Shrek 2 may be uneven to me, but there are things I like about it, and I can see why it was such a big success back when it came out. Shrek the Third did little with the characters and world, and consequently the film had weak legs at the box office. Shrek Forever After was alright. Perhaps they put it to rest at the right time. Puss in Boots surprised a lot of folk, including me. I'm still waiting for that sequel to happen, I'd take that over Shrek 5.

About Shrek 5. It's still a go. Writer Michael McCullers, who recently penned the studio's The Boss Baby and is known for his work on the Austin Powers series, said in an interview that the script is done.

I finished that script which I really, really, really love. It’s really personal to me. It’s got a pretty big reinvention behind it that I guess I can’t really reveal, but since DreamWorks was sold to Universal in that time for over $3 billion, I imagine they’re particularly interested in it stepping up and actually figuring out the future of the franchise in that way on the corporate level. Reinvention was sort of called for.

Big reinvention, eh?

Well, what more can you do with the green ogre, really? What more can you do with his modern medieval fairy tale-esque setting? Shrek Forever After at least tried to do something kind of fun, even if it ended up being a rather flat and paint-by-numbers movie. So what now? Shrek in Space? Shrek Visits an Alternate Dimension? Shrek Time Travels? I know there's stuff to make fun of, especially current Disney films, but... That's routine for Shrek. To me, they need to really try something new, so why not just do something cool and a bit impossible?

Really, I can take Shrek 5 or leave it. I didn't ask for it, I'm sure most of us didn't, but Comcast, franchises, you know? Shrek 5 has been on the table since the days DreamWorks' raft had holes poked in it, and I'm sure the heads at Comcast want one. Me? I want that Arabian Nights-centric Puss in Boots 2 to happen soon, but I think that has probably gone the way of the dodo as well.

With that all said, I have a feeling this thing will be out sometime in 2020. If not that year, then definitely 2021, just in time for the series' 20th anniversary. 2020, coincidentally, will be the year the original book - William Steig's Shrek! - turns 30. Outside of us folk, I wonder who even knows that Shrek was a book.

What say you on Shrek 5?

No Fooling: 'Boss Baby' Flies This Weekend

Fox and DreamWorks' marketing teams must've done something right...

The Boss Baby collected $15 million for its opening day, which could translate to a $50 million+ opening weekend gross. Basically, it's the next Home for the studio. Few had hopes for Home, projections had it in the mid-to-high 20s, low 30s at best... Then it dashed out of the gate with $52 million. Will The Boss Baby equal that? Top it? Or land somewhere below it?

Either way, it's thankfully not another flop for DreamWorks. As much as I don't want them to be rewarded for movies like these, I don't want to see animators get put out of a job. Even more surreal, it looks to top juggernaut Beauty and the Beast on the charts.

I'm honestly not surprised.

I know the theater I work at is just one theater out of 4,000+, buuuut... I'd say 90% of the customers there have all reacted positively to the posters and displays that we have. Things like "We gotta see that Baby Boss movie!" It kept making me think... "You know, this may not be a flop."

This is the fourth post-fallout success in a row for DreamWorks. Whether it was the marketing chief switch at the studio or not, they've been on steady ground. Home, Kung Fu Panda 3, Trolls, now this. Captain Underpants is the last Fox-distributed DreamWorks movie, and being an outsourced film, I don't think too much will be riding on its back.

UPDATE - Monday 4/3/2017

$50 million. Not too shabby. Quite a few millions above Kung Fu Panda 3 and Trolls, and just a little behind Home. With little family competition until the summer, I think Boss Baby should be fine. 3.0x multiplier at the minimum, which would translate to a $150 million domestic gross.

Consequently, The Lego Batman Movie lost over 800 screens, dropped 64%, and collected $750k for the weekend. It now sits at $172 million domestically and $297 million worldwide.

No big changes for Sing and Moana domestically, the former is at $614 million worldwide and the latter is at $628 million. Moana is now coming up on Big Hero 6's worldwide gross. Rock Dog lingers. Rose 11%, but it doesn't matter, the pic is still at $9 million stateside and about the same amount overseas.

More Fantasy: DreamWorks To Adapt Cressida Cowell's Next Book Series

Once the dragons fly away, the wizards will come in...

DreamWorks Animation announced earlier today that they have acquired to rights to Cressida Cowell's upcoming book series The Wizards of Once. Cowell, as many of you may know, conceived How To Train Your Dragon. Her 12-book series inspired DreamWorks' two epic fantasy stories, and the third entry in the series is due out in March of 2019. The movie series will end there, not sure about the TV side of things...

The Wizards of Once is about a wizard boy and a warrior girl who were taught to loathe each other, but things change when their two worlds come together. The full premise, via Amazon...

Once there was Magic, and the Magic lived in the dark forests. Until the Warriors came...

Xar is a Wizard boy who has no Magic, and will do anything to get it. Wish is a Warrior girl, but she owns a banned Magical Object, and she will do anything to conceal it.

In this whirlwind adventure, Xar and Wish must forget their differences if they're going to make it to the dungeons at Warrior Fort.

Where something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring...

The first book will hit shelves this coming autumn. This isn't the first time DreamWorks acquired a book series that was then yet to come out. Their 2012 fantasy adventure Rise of the Guardians was based on William Joyce's The Guardians of Childhood, which at the time of the film announcement, wasn't published. Sadly, Rise of the Guardians didn't go over due to the marketing's mishandling of it, and the gargantuan budget it was saddled with.

New DreamWorks head Chris DeFaria seems very gung-ho about this one...

“Cressida is part of the DreamWorks family and with The Wizards of Once she once again anchors a new franchise for us... The story is packed with the perfect elements to create a unique magical universe inhabited by adventurous, funny and memorable characters that will enthrall generations to come. We are honored to have another opportunity to partner with this amazingly creative author.”

This marks the second project that DeFaria and the new executives have approved of, the first of which was the Trolls sequel. At the moment, I think this is a very smart move. Years back, DreamWorks hinted at a transition into making big, epic, and even dark fantasy pictures. Movies that would align with the How to Train Your Dragon movies. Rise of the Guardians seemed like the kick-off to a future that included things like The Grimm Legacy, Alma, Rumblewick, and several other fantasy adventures.

Rise of the Guardians' box office collapse in fall 2012, unfortunately, brought that to a quick end. Despite how badly the likes of Turbo and Mr. Peabody & Sherman did, former CEO/founder Jeffrey Katzenberg - in his last years at the studio, and his last years being in control - felt the right way to go was with movies like The Boss Baby and Captain Underpants. Lightweight family comedies that weren't dissimilar to Turbo and Peabody...

So the possibility of DreamWorks getting back on the fantasy adventure kick excites me. I feared for a little while that their future slate would be mainly Minions-lite stuff (because Universal also has Illumination), but maybe that was hyperbolic. Now, nothing is set in stone. In a year, DreamWorks' heads could turn this away and instead greenlight a Minions-y trash movie, but we shall see what happens. How To Train Your Dragon 2, while successful, wasn't the leggy monster its predecessor was at the domestic box office. Worldwide, it did significantly better. I do know that their heads at the time were disappointed with its run.

How To Train Your Dragon 3's delays had more to do with their schedule constantly changing. They initially thought that they could get the thing out last summer, but then (and this was back in 2014, mind you) they moved it to summer 2017. Then DreamWorks' fallout occurred at the end of 2014, How To Train Your Dragon 3 got pushed to summer 2018, because they wanted to reduce the amount of movies they were going to put out every calendar year. Dragon 3 would've shared this year with 3-4 other movies! The final move to spring 2019 happened because of the Comcast acquisition, and under Comcast, several in-development projects got the boot.

Since 2018 is now without a DreamWorks movie (following the regrettable cancellation of Larrikins), it's very possible that How To Train Your Dragon 3 can slink its way forward, but for now this is all speculation. Whenever it hits, hopefully it's a hit.

Do you think this adaptation will take off? Sound off below!

Ready for Take Off: Trailer for 'Captain Underpants' Arrives

At long last, the trailer for DreamWorks' Captain Underpants is finally here.

... and just in time for the release of their newest film, The Boss Baby...


I've said it before many times on here, I like that they are going the Peanuts Movie route with the visuals. That way, the look of it can be more faithful to the illustrations in Dav Pilkey's books. The movie itself looks gleefully silly, and some of the action bits are pretty funny. I wasn't blown away by this trailer by any means (then again I didn't really read the Captain Underpants books when I was little), but it looks like a fun romp from DreamWorks. While Boss Baby's latest trailers and spots have left me unsure, this looks pretty straightforward. They also set things up nicely, before it all becomes noise. Typical of 95% of American animated movie trailers, but ya know...

For those who don't know, this is the final DreamWorks movie that's being distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was outsourced to Mikros Image, the intention was to get this thing done on a lower budget, so I guess that's why Fox waited till now to launch the marketing. Yes I know Boss Baby is right around the corner, but they could've started the campaign earlier. Either way, not much seems to be at stake. I'm going to assume this thing cost around $70 million to make, as opposed to the usual $120 million+ budgets DreamWorks usually blows on features.

And yet, for a lower budget feature, visually it's a lot more exciting than most of the CG films we're getting nowadays. They took full advantage of the budget, and made a very neat, cartoony-looking CG film where everything is done in a simplistic, weirdo style. I dig it.

What do you think of the trailer?

Shattered Dreams: Is Oriental DreamWorks Being Phased Out?

DreamWorks' Shanghai unit apparently is the next casualty of the Comcast acquisition of the company...

The moon boy studio, according to Variety, is going to give up their 45% stake in the overseas unit.

The Shanghai unit, which is called Oriental DreamWorks, has actually had it kind of rough. Attempts to jumpstart live-action pictures fell through. It took a while for their homegrown Everest (set for fall 2019) to get off the ground, and now that picture (according to this) has apparently been ported back to Glendale.

Variety also mentions that Kung Fu Panda 3, despite grossing a strong $521 million against a $140 million budget, was seen as something of a disappointment. Though Kung Fu Panda 3 took in over $150 million at the Chinese box office, I can see why they could've been disappointed with the results. The film was pretty much localized, a whole other version of it was made specifically for China with some alterations here and there. It doesn't help that Zootopia blew past it with ease a few weeks later. A film that wasn't an entry in a pre-existing franchise, and one that wasn't either overtly American or Chinese. No one predicted how huge it was going to be.

Not too long ago, the Shanghai unit laid off 40 animators. The staff number was 250 in 2014, now it's less than 100. Universal has their own Chinese distribution firm, and supposedly they see Oriental DreamWorks as extra weight. A source told Variety, "It’s not because it’s not an important or successful business, it just duplicates what they already have in China."

It's yet another Jenga peg being pulled out from the tower, the tower that is the old DreamWorks. After Comcast's acquisition of the company, the now 23-year-old animation studio is changing quickly. Many layoffs ensued, ties with the India-based unit were broken, the new executives pulled the plug on movies like The Croods 2 and Larrikins, and the film slate was reshuffled. While Everest was on DreamWorks' docket long before the acquisition, the only film given the go-head under Comcast/Universal so far is Trolls 2. A film that did far better in the merchandise department than at the box office.

What DreamWorks gets mutated into by the end of the decade, I have no idea. My brutally honest opinion? I don't think things are looking too good right now. The one project of theirs that I was interested in is now dead, and I kind of fear that the new executives may just turn DreamWorks into an Illumination-lite hit-house. Maybe, maybe not. If Edgar Wright's Shadows gets the greenlight, maybe I'll have a little faith.

What say you?

Leaving the Outback: DreamWorks Cancels 'Larrikins'

DreamWorks' weirdo-sounding Outback musical Larrikins has been left to die in the desert...

Musician/songwriter/comedian Tim Minchin, who conceived the Australian-set rock-and-roll musical, revealed this recently... He is quite distraught...

I’ve recently been working in 3 different continents, missing my kids a lot, sleeping too little and not playing piano enough.

And then a couple of days ago, the animated film to which I’ve dedicated the last 4 years of my life was shut down by the new studio execs.

The only way I know how to deal with my impotent fury and sadness is to subject members of the public to the spectacle of me getting drunk and playing ballads.

I shouldn't be surprised, because DreamWorks in the recent years has canceled projects that I was very excited about. The traditionally-animated/CG hybrid Me and My Shadow got the axe many moons ago and got recooked into the presumably all-CG feature Shadows, and a Mumbai-set musical about monkeys got shuttered a few years ago as well. Instead, they pushed for safe-as-vanilla fodder like The Boss Baby.

Larrikins seemed to be up in the air when Comcast acquired DreamWorks this past autumn. The movie was set to come out in mid-February of next year, but DreamWorks was very hush-hush on it. No logo, no concept artwork, no information. I assumed this was so because of the transitioning, and all the changes in management and such, but no... Larrikins is dead. Like Bollywood Superstar Monkey and Me and My Shadow before it, it's not happening. It'll join those two, alongside The Croods 2 and B.O.O., in the morgue.

This also means that DreamWorks will not release a single picture next year. 2018 will be the first year without a DreamWorks movie since... 1999.

We can speculate all we want for the time being. Was it canceled because it was too weird for them? Not candy-coated Trolls-y enough? Or was it actually a hot mess? I remember hearing rumors that the picture was going to be "pulled back into story", despite keeping its early 2018 release date. All I can say is, having been exciting for the project since the day it was announced in 2013, I am officially bummed.

While DreamWorks has How To Train Your Dragon 3, the interesting-sounding Everest (no longer an Oriental DreamWorks project, which may or may not spell trouble), and Shadows (recooked or not, Edgar Wright is currently set to direct it) on the horizon... I can't help but worry a bit. Maybe those concerns of Comcast turning DreamWorks into a reliable Illumination-like machine without much of an identity are valid after all, or maybe not. Again, we know very little. We haven't seen reels of Larrikins, we have next to no idea of what this thing was even going to be like. What even is new leader Chris DeFaria's plan for the studio?

I wouldn't set my phasers from worry to flip out just yet, but... Well... Given how things tend to go in mainstream animation-land, I am not too optimistic about what DreamWorks could mutate into in the next 3-5 years. More context on Larrikins' shut-down would be nice, but it to me is bad news all around. Larrikins sounded like something above the likes of The Boss Baby and even the psychedelic Trolls, something quirky and different, directed by someone from the outside... But like many cool-sounding projects that get conceived in this field, it was kicked out the door...

East to West: 'Everest' No Longer an Oriental DreamWorks Film?

When DreamWorks set up an animation studio in China, big plans were put into place.

The studio, called Oriental DreamWorks, was always set to make their own animated features in addition to live-action productions. They co-produced Kung Fu Panda 3, for starters. A certain mystery production, which turned out to be a yeti tale called Everest, was set to be the first animated feature that they would make on their own. Or so it seemed...

It appears that the film is no longer going to be done up at DreamWorks' Shanghai unit, so I was told...

@DeLuxODonnell92 Everest is no longer an ODW production. It's been brought back to glendale & will be released as a normal DWA film

— Jonathan Hernandez (@jhun88) March 2, 2017

Hernandez's bio says he works for DreamWorks, so yes, there you have it.

Perhaps that explains the director change as well. Originally, the film was going to be written and directed by Jill Culton, but by the time the film was officially slated (which was this past December), she was off the project. I wonder why it has been taken back. Early rumors suggested that DreamWorks was going to scale down and make just one Glendale movie every year, which lead me to believe that they would outsource certain films in order to still get two out there in certain years. Captain Underpants, opening this summer, was outsourced to Mikros.

I was wondering if that would continue. It was similar to the way Disney Feature Animation used to do it in the 90s and early 2000s. Some smaller-budgeted features - such as Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear, and the aborted A Few Good Ghosts - were made/to be made at the now-defunct Florida unit, while Burbank handled goliath-budget heavies like Tarzan and Treasure Planet. If Everest is not an ODW production, will ODW make something else then? Or will they collaborate on certain movies?

Does DreamWorks still plan to send some movies overseas so that they don't cost anywhere near $125 million to make? Or better yet, to another state? I'm not sure what Chris DeFaria's game plan is here, I've heard many different stories here and there. It's all a bit convoluted, but whatever direction DreamWorks goes, we shall see.

What say you?

Won't Stop the Feeling: DreamWorks Announces 'Trolls 2'

No need to wait for an annual report, for it appears that DreamWorks is very happy with how Trolls did...

Right out of the gate, DreamWorks announced the sequel and its release date: April 10, 2020.

That's one week after an untitled Sony Pictures Animation "franchise" film. With this year, we're seeing animated movies opening closer and closer to each other, so clearly they feel that this particular risk is worth taking. I don't believe in cannibalization myself, but I hope all these films being released so close together doesn't bring too many downsides.

It seems a little confusing at first. Why a sequel? Trolls made 2.7x its $125 million budget, and I'm sure a lot of money was poured into the marketing. By contrast, DreamWorks' supposedly-disastrous Penguins of Madagascar made 2.8x its budget, and that lead to cutbacks, layoffs, and a whole studio (PDI) being shut-down. I always assumed that Penguins was called the disaster because it missed $100 million domestically, whereas Trolls and Home each surpassed $150 million on American soil. That, and Trolls was a merchandising monster. I hadn't seen so much merch for a DreamWorks film in *years*...

It also helps that its main song was a big hit. I can't get away from it, because my theater lobby's ad-TVs play it on near-infinite loop. I don't dislike the song, but ya know... It gets a wee bit tiresome when you hear it all the time.

So yeah, with that in mind it makes a little sense. Also, DreamWorks is no longer the studio they were in January 2015, when they got hit so hard by Penguins. They're now owned by Comcast, a big money pit. Without a safety net like that, they were in the position where they either had to sink or swim. Remember how some sites were ringing the death bell for them?

Trolls 2 is sure to repeat its predecessor's success in some way. The movie was no mega-hit by any means, so it would be wise for post-acquisition DreamWorks to keep the costs down this time. Since DreamWorks now looks to release one Glendale-made film every calendar year, this raises a few questions. The Edgar Wright-directed re-imagining of the cancelled Me and My Shadow, Shadows, was once planned for a 2019 release until DreamWorks/Universal decided on the one-a-year plan.

However, DreamWorks has their Shanghai-based unit. That studio is making their own animated feature, Everest. That's opening in 2019, the same year DreamWorks will release the mainline How To Train Your Dragon 3. That strategy is also being tested this year: DreamWorks outsourced this summer's Captain Underpants to Mikros Image, while The Boss Baby - a little over a month away - was done in the states. So say Trolls 2 is a mainline picture, will we get an outsourced/Shanghai film that same year? Could Shadows possibly be a smaller outsourced film?

Also... DreamWorks... Any news on Larrikins. It's out in a slightly less than a year. Maybe tell us a little bit about that one, eh?

What say you on Trolls 2?

Weekend Box Office Report: Steady Drops

The calm before the storm... The Lego Batman Movie - currently garnering rave reviews - is out in a matter of days...

Sing still sits in the Top 10, staying at #7. It dipped 36%, made $4 million, and now sits at $262 million. Worldwide, it has jumped up to $487 million. France and the UK recently got it, China, Russia, and Japan are next. I expect it to do very well in the first two of those three territories.

Good ol' Monster Trucks slipped 49%, $31 million here, $57 million everywhere. Like I said on another post, I expected it to do way worse. The more I think about it, the more I think it should've been like Paramount's own Super 8. A town-set monster flick made for roughly $50 million, why in the world did Monster Trucks have to cost $75 million *more* than that? Oh right, something about confidence in it possibly kickstarting a Transformers/Ninja Turtles-esque franchise.

Despite losing over 1,000 screens, Moana eased 46%. $242 million here, $554 million worldwide. Still hanging in there, looks like it'll settle for a sub-$255 million domestic gross. $600 million worldwide is in sight!

No update on Trolls' gross. With the Blu-ray out tomorrow, I reckon its run will end pretty soon. There wouldn't be any major change anyways. We still await the verdict from DreamWorks on whether it was a success or a loss...

Ready to Fly: 'Captain Underpants' Teaser Poster Surfaces

As they say, have no fear... The first poster for Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is here.

DreamWorks' Captain Underpants is a particularly interesting production. The studio outsourced their adaptation of Dav Pilkey's irreverent gross-out book series to Mikros Image in Montreal. Their plan was to get it made for a lower cost than their in-house films. It was a very smart move, for DreamWorks had been suffering for a while and losing lots of money on costly animated features that perhaps weren't destined to magically pull ridiculous numbers out of hat. Captain Underpants isn't quite an adult-skewing property, so I think they did the right thing.

The film also boasts a more unique animation style, and looks to be a mixed media kinda feature, using stop-motion, sock-puppets and (gasp!) traditional animation. With a smaller budget, I feel you can take more visual risks like that. It seems like DreamWorks won't shy away from outsourcing, as 2019's Everest will be done by their Shanghai studio for - presumably - a much lower cost. These kinds of movies will sit well with the mainline heavies, not dissimilar to how Disney Feature Animation's defunct Orlando unit made smaller pics (Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear) while the Burbank building unleashed the big, costly films.

Since The Lego Batman Movie is right around the corner, it's time to start plugging this June title. Fox and DreamWorks have currently been marketing The Boss Baby, due out in over a month. I figured they'd have to start the campaign for Captain Underpants soon, but the good thing is, they don't need to make Trolls numbers if the budget for this thing turns out to be something like $70 million. The Boss Baby is the mainline California production, so they need that to be the biggie. Whether it'll make its money back or not, remains to be seen. All I know is, it's all over my theater.

As many of you may know, this will be the last DreamWorks Animation film to be distributed by 20th Century Fox. Universal will take control of the ship after that film is released. Their first DreamWorks movie is Larrikins, set to open a little over a year from now. Where's the concept art, DreamWorks? Where's the first look? What's going on with it?

Anyways, as I've said before, I certainly hope this "First Epic Movie" can stretch the fun of the books to 90 minutes, and engage both adults and kids alike. This movie is a part of Jeffrey Katzenberg's plan that was launched in early 2015, when he sought to be more involved with the animated movies again following the company's big collapse. His goal was to have the studio make innocuous comedy movies that were aimed at "kids and their mothers", and these two pics began production during that time. Katzenberg retired after Comcast bought DreamWorks, so maybe Captain Underpants will be the end of an era...

I dig the poster, though. That comic style is there, and the other images we've seen show how different the animation style will be, how more Peanuts Movie-esque it is. I'm looking to forward to the visuals for the time being, I'm on the fence about the story and writing.

What say you?

Weekend Box Office: 'Sing' Still Carrying a Tune

Hey look, a January weekend that wasn't all that dry!

On the live-action end, M. Night Shyamalan's newest posted a great $40 million opening, putting it up there in the top January openings. Makes up for the relatively shoddy last few weeks. (Though Hidden Figures' success is quite something!)

Anyways, onto the real news... Sing is still in the Top 5, now at #4. It collected $9 million this weekend, down 36%. Grossing $249 million domestically to date, it's a few days away from surpassing the domestic gross of the first Despicable Me. Worldwide, it is now at $427 million. This one should be at over $500 million when all is said and done, I think.

Monster Trucks is somewhat beating the snark and bad buzz, for it held on quite well. Dipping 36% and collecting $7 million, it now sits at $22 million here and $41 million everywhere. It's still a crushing flop, but the decent-sized drop (and the fact that it's still getting good-sized crowds at my theater) tells me that audiences are kinda digging it. Perhaps Paramount should've had a wee bit more faith in this one?

Moana didn't move, staying in 12th place. Falling a solid 41%, it took in $2 million for the weekend, and is now at $236 million domestically. Should still reach $250 million at the end of the line, worldwide it has finally cracked five-oh-oh, now sitting at $509 million. If it's a breakout hit in Japan, $600 million is doable.

No major changes for Trolls: $152 million domestically and $337 million worldwide.

Weekend Box Office Report: Paramount Finally Rips Band-Aid, Others Hold Well

In an alternate universe, maybe Paramount's misguided mishap would've been the next Avatar...

Anyways, we all saw it coming. Monster Trucks' tires deflated. Opening at #7, behind several holdovers, the film took in $10 million for the three-day. It's also doing nothing in the few territories it's out in. With a 3x multiplier, the thing won't make more than $30 million, so yes. Big loss, but again, we knew it was going to happen. Paramount knew it back in August, the spillover from the previous guard is finally here and off their chests. Cult favorite in a few years? Or something that'll be locked in the bad box?

Paramount Animation will be fine. A few days ago, it seemed like a few heads were optimistic about their more animated future. By that, I mean we'll be seeing more caricature animation films from them, less live-action movies with hyper-real VFX elements.

Sing still crows, dropping a great 33% and reeling in $18 million for the weekend. At this point, somewhere between $250-270 million seems to be the sky. The picture's now at $397 million worldwide, still has to open in some key markets, as noted before. How long before Universal and Illumination officially ink Sing 2's 2019 release date?

Moana is now out of the Top 10, but it's still hanging ten. (My theater lost it this weekend.) It fell 38%, the gross to date is $231 million domestically. Worldwide, it's now at cruising its way towards $500 million, as it's now at $482 million. Finally past the 3x mark, Disney must be happy. Does it break out in Japan? Could it get to $600 million? We shall see...

Trolls is still around, dropping 12% and making 385k. $151 million domestically, $338 million worldwide. Still waiting on the verdict from DreamWorks themselves, whether this thing's a profit-maker or not.

Storks officially ended its run this past Thursday. $72 million here, $182 million worldwide. Non c'è male!

What are saying for The Lego Batman Movie's opening numbers?

UPDATE: MLK weekend totals...

Four-days are in...

Monster Trucks has made $15 million now, an $29 million worldwide.

Sing is now up to $238 million domestically, and $402 million worldwide.

Moana is still at $233 million, as it's pretty late into its run. $484 million worldwide.

Trolls stayed the same.

A New Head: DreamWorks Animation Gets a New CEO

The transitioning still isn't over, it seems...

DreamWorks Animation finally has a new CEO, and one who is no stranger to animation.

The man in question is Chris DeFaria, who actually began his career in animation long before his live-action successes. He started out doing the voice of Peppermint Patty in a few Peanuts films and specials from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. For over twenty years, he has been at Warner Bros., being a key part of the visual fx/animation side of the company, and was one of the overseers of Warner Animation Group. He has quite a bit of experience, and seems like he is a good fit for the position.

As expected, DreamWorks president Bonnie Arnold (now by herself, co-president Mireille Soria stepped down last month) will answer to him, and he will answer to Universal chairman Donna Langley. CEO and founder of Illumination Entertainment Chris Meledandri, who made it clear that he wasn't going to run the studio, will be a senior advisor.

Here is what DeFaria had to say...

"Having the opportunity to shape the future of DreamWorks Animation and build on its storied legacy is an unbelievable honor... I can’t wait to get started with Donna and Chris, as well as Bonnie and the incredibly talented artists at DWA, on bringing more iconic stories and characters to audiences around the globe. This is the opportunity of a lifetime and while I will miss the many great people at Warner Bros. and the terrific projects with which I was involved, I couldn’t be more excited about everything that lies ahead."

The slate is still being figured out, while there is a clear road ahead. Nothing has changed for the films that have concrete release dates, but after this move, we should get an idea of what's in store. Will more interesting fare make the cut? The same ol'-same ol'? Or something unexpected?

What say you?

Weekend Box Office Report: Everyone Slips

Well, now that the holiday season has pretty much ended, things took dips...

Sing still leads the pack, sitting at #3. Falling 54%, it collected $19 million and the film sits at $213 million domestically. Is a $300 million final gross in play for this thing? I wouldn't be shocked if it got that high, as it is yet another leggy Illumination monster. Worldwide, it's at $356 million. It has yet to open in the UK, China, Russia, Japan, and ironically the country it was produced in... France. The film has already made over 4 1/2x its budget.

Moana had a milder dip, easing 41% and collecting $6 million for the weekend. The film is now at $225 million domestically, keeping Walt Disney Animation Studios' winning streak going, and passing the studio's Big Hero 6. If the film keeps it up, we could be looking at a $250 million domestic haul. Still yet to open in some key territories, Moana is up to $450 million worldwide. That's very good for now, as that is exactly 3x the picture's budget. I see some sites are writing Moana off as an underperformer. It is anything but... Not every animated feature is destined to magically pull Frozen/Zootopia/Inside Out/Secret Life of Pets numbers out of a hat. It's just the way it goes. Besides, the movie has already made 4x its opening weekend gross... Underperformance alright.

Down 35% this weekend was Trolls, still shining. It's now in the sub-500k zone, taking in 430k for the weekend. The picture looks to stop somewhere below $155 million domestically, and worldwide it's pretty much done. $340 million or below for the final global tally. That would be 2.7x the budget. DreamWorks seemed happy with Home, which made 2.9x the budget. Penguins of Madagascar made 2.8x its budget, but they deemed that a flop. I'm not sure what the verdict will be for Trolls, but I think all's well because of Trolls' very good domestic performance (something Home had, but Penguins didn't) and the consumer product sales I think were strong. I haven't seen so much merchandise for a DreamWorks movie in years.

Storks is surprisingly still playing in some theaters out there, but nothing has really changed: $72 million domestic / $180 million worldwide.

I'll of course cover Monster Trucks, as that is a Paramount Animation-branded flick and I'm curious to see how it does despite the fact that the distributor took a huge writedown on the picture many months ago. $115 million to be exact. The real box office fun will begin again with The Lego Batman Movie next month...

New Year Box Office Bash: 'Sing' Sings Loud, 'Moana' Rides the Wave

Illumination's newest, big shock, is an unstoppable beast.

Sing had excellent three and four-day grosses. The four-day on this one was a fantastic $56 million, up 60%. The picture now stands at $180 million domestically and $277 million worldwide. Already 3 1/2x the $75 million budget, the usual for Illumination's films. Just you watch, in a few weeks, that untitled Illumination film set for summer 2019? That's probably going to be Sing 2.

Moana was no slouch, either. Moving from #6 to #4 on the charts, rising while other new competitors fell, it took in $14 million for the 4-day. That's up 85%, and the film has made $213 million stateside. It's a few millions away from passing the studio's own Big Hero 6, the original 1992 gross Aladdin collected, and should be past Team Emeryville's Brave ($237 million) in a couple of weeks. We saw an uptick in the foreign box office too, for Moana is now at $402 million worldwide.

While not Frozen 2.0 at the box office, it is doing very respectable business. To be disappointed, I think, is silly. Frozen's success was a once-in-a-blue-moon all-the-planets-align kind of thing, Moana looks to at least outgross Tangled at the worldwide box office once it hits a few more key markets in the coming months.

Even Trolls jumped up. $900k for the 4-day, up 133%! It has finally crossed $150 million domestically and sits at $332 million worldwide. It's out everywhere, so there are no more markets for it to open in. The current gross is still only 2.6x the budget, not sure what DreamWorks wants. Are they okay with 2 1/2x the $125 million cost? Or do they expect it to make around 3x the budget? Or is the merchandise doing the rest of the work?

There haven't been any updates on Storks since December 22nd, so I'll safely assume it ended its run. $72 million domestically, $179 million worldwide. Not bad for a film that got slipshod marketing, as it only cost $70 million to make. Warner Bros. ought to be happy with how it did.

Carrying a Tune: 'Sing' Opens Well

Now that the Christmas week and weekend are over, what are the results?

Illumination's Sing lead the animated pack, which isn't surprising given that it's the new film from the reliably hit-making Despicable Me creators. That being said, the opening wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be. It's still very good, because Illumination is smart with budgets. For those who don't know, they send the work to a French studio they own called Mac Guff. This is why their animated films cost less than $80 million to make.

Sing also debuted at #2, because of a strong hold-over for Rogue One. It pulled in $35 million for the three-day, and $55 million for the five-day. With Monday estimates already in, the film is currently at $76 million. Worldwide? $93 million. Key markets like the UK and Japan haven't gotten the film yet, it doesn't open in the country it was made in until next month. Russia and Japan have to wait until March. I'm sure it'll do fine over in those territories. Look for a leggy run with this one...

With a bevy of new releases, Moana slipped from second place to sixth. Only dropping 41%, the weekend total was $7 million, bringing the picture up to $180 million domestically. Monday estimates take it to $183 million. Worldwide, it's at $327 million. Like Sing, it has yet to open in a few major markets as well. At this point in its run back in 2010, Tangled was at $146 million. This means $237 million might be the ceiling for Moana, which is pretty darn good. That would be a stellar 4.3x the three-day opening weekend gross, 2.8x the five-day. Tangled made 4.1x its three-day, and 2.9x its five-day. If Moana performs more like that, then we'll be looking at a possible $240 million+ gross.

Trolls lost over 1,000 theaters and dipped 71% for the three-day, with a $390k take, $575k for the four-day. Worldwide, it is at $329 million. The picture looks to finish somewhere below $155 million in North America, a solid number that puts it between Kung Fu Panda 3 ($141 million) and Home ($177 million). Here's hoping the last two Fox-DreamWorks pictures do well.

No numbers for Storks just yet...

To be updated...

Another Breed of Superhero: First Look at DreamWorks' 'Captain Underpants'

Have no fear, your first look at DreamWorks' other 2017 release is here.

Captain Underpants...

Who would've thought, right? I bet many aren't digging the idea of a movie based on the Dav Pilkey book series, others probably aren't shocked that DreamWorks opted to adapt them. Even though DreamWorks has shown for over eight years that they can tell good stories that don't fall back on cheap toilet humor and such, some people out there still believe that every new DreamWorks movie is a fartfest. Captain Underpants moving forward more than "confirms" that for them.

For those not in the know, Captain Underpants is exactly what it says on the box. Two fourth graders hypnotize their school principal, whose is described as tyrannical, into becoming a superhero. A big man with no powers who is only wearing a curtain cape and underpants. It's as ridiculous as it looks, folks. Being a 90s kid, I remember the books being a big staple at every book fair at my elementary school. It was a big deal back then, and other schools weren't as welcoming to the series as mine was. They went as far as banning them, due to their fear of them being inappropriate for young readers and also fearing that they would encourage them to... Yes, disobey authorities.

It has quite a history, and it actually kind of seems like prime material to turn into a silly animated comedy. The first look at the film, provided by Entertainment Weekly, shows something that I think actually has some potential...

No different from the style used in Blue Sky's The Peanuts Movie, what they've got here looks pretty good and is pretty much the illustrations of the books brought to the big screen. What wasn't stated in the report is this: DreamWorks actually outsourced this production to Mikros, who have houses in Canada and France. A smart idea in hindsight, because spending Trolls money ($125 million) on this kind of movie isn't a good idea.

That's not all, though. Director David Soren (who directed DreamWorks' Turbo) said that the film will not only be irreverent like the books, but it will also have a lot of fun with its own visuals: Stylized CG isn't the only thing you'll see in it, you'll also see traditionally animated (!) scenes that will look like comic book panels come to life, and also sock puppets of all things, and more. A real mixed-media kind of animated feature.

Soren also revealed that the story will feel like something made by the two fourth grade protagonists. Back when it was announced, my question has always been, will DreamWorks be able to keep the series' style funny and not cringeworthy for a whole 90-or-so minutes? Unlike some of the DreamWorks movies of the 2000s, Captain Underpants isn't a series that uses toilet humor to get a laugh. It's a series that is pretty much built around grossness, I mean c'mon... That's in the title alone! Just looks at the volume titles, too. The movie could be like the cinematic equivalent of a Ren & Stimpy episode. In another way, it could subvert superhero movies, since those have been dominating.

I know, it's the last thing feature animation in America needs, but it's here, so I say... Might as well hope for the best. With the first look now out, I wonder when the teaser will surface?

What say you?